running for office in minnesota, a lot of people told me i should run for secretary of state which is a very important job especially for the womenn are strong and the men are good-looking and the recounts are above average. that. urge me to run for they said, you run statewide in won't have as much controversy. said, no, i think i want to do the job that i want to do for now that i see as challenging and that is what i did. i did that job. manage 400 people for eight years and another opportunity came up. i think it is important what you do your job, you like what you're doing and you keep focusing on it. if other opportunities come up, great. people spend their entire time looking for the next step, they find out that the grass is not

always greener and they don't enjoy or do well that what they are doing. thef down the road virginity rices for higher office, would you be interested? >> i want to focus on what i am doing now but i appreciate the question. i appreciate that you are wearing viking purple. we have faith the vikings will emerge again. >> they have never won the super bowl. itmy dad wrote a book about and said the he wrote it in the 1980's and that is so relevant today. >> gehl and the university of chicago, why those two schools? >> i really had no connection to the east coast and i applied to a bunch of schools. i got into a lot of schools and i remember my dad really wanted me to stay in minnesota. some editor at the newspaper we were on -- we're on an elevator, i said i was going to the

library. he asked me where i was going to college and i said i didn't know yet. and my dadyale said i was not going there because it was too expensive. we were able to scrape together 10,000 dollars at the time but i most remember that i brought my pink polyester prom dress. i'd never been to the east coast except for one trip. i brought my pink polyester prom dress and matching shoes in case i needed it. i would often take the greyhound bus back and forth from college to minnesota to save money. it wasn't exactly a glamorous life but i met so many good friends and it really opened up a new role for me -- world for me. i always wanted to come back to minnesota. >> is your daughter interested in politics? >> i don't know. my husband always jokes when people asked that question. he said what would you be

interested in if your mom's job had an approval rating of 10%? i think she really has a keen eye for politics and understands that in government she is volunteering in college in helping immigrants learn to read. she is doing the newspaper, writing for the newspaper with a focus on politics. she likes that. i really want her to do whatever she wants to do in life and not director in any which way and it seems like it is going fine right now. our one comment to me recently was that she felt walt whitman's poems were too repetitive. she clearly is a girl who things on her own. >> usurper two years with barack obama become -- before he became president. what was your relationship like with them personally? >> we get along well. he is someone who has taken on

some major difficult issues. you think about when he got into office how challenging that was when we were losing more jobs at one month and there were people in the state of vermont. you think about his calmness. there are so many international crisies. his wanting to bring the troops home from iraq and afghanistan. he has been steady and strong and sticking to what he wanted to do. it has been frustrating not to be able to get anything done for him. he certainly got a lot done. i think if he can get this yougration bill done then will be able to look back at some major changes that he has made in the country. some major social changes whether it be the don't ask, don't tell repeal or his position on gay marriage. the emergence of so many strong women in his cabinet including hillary clinton.

devotiont is just been to doing something about keeping the economy going again a lot of attacks that he gets every day. himll continue to work with on every issue that comes along. we like when it comes to visit our state and hopes he comes again soon. >> you get back home how often? >> i get home about three out of every four weekends. with the weather being so lovely in minnesota right now, you don't want to miss it. there was a date when we were colder than mars. that day has passed. we have now moved on to warmer pastures. >> if you have a rare day off with nothing to do, what do you enjoy doing? >> i love going bicycling in the summer. i biked with my dad across the country from minneapolis to

wyoming, 1100 miles in 10 days. i like going to movies with my husband. we have a lot of fun doing that. i like taking walks. i like to check in with my daughter if she answers the phone. it is nice to take that time where you can be outside, even in the winter. >> was a bigger sense of humor, colleague? that ipresident declared was the second funniest senator. that was incredibly humorous. he has worked very hard at his job and so you don't always see that humor. he clearly has a very big sense of humor. >> you don't always take yourself too seriously? >> no, but it is rather amazing

to go one-on-one with al franken. we do have to do this. they have is both do humor and my favorite moment was he called me after one of them and said he liked my jokes and that i liked his jokes. i worked really hard on that. he just had to put that together. the difference was that you are a professional and i was a prosecutor. he is a lot of fun to work with and i do think having some people with a little sense of humor in this town can go a long way. >> brookings institution will discuss the u.s. ground forces with military officials from army and marine corps live at 10:00 a.m. eastern. d remarks from congressman

buck mckeon. he is the chair of the house armed services committee and will talk about the obama's administration's plans for ithdrawing forces. >> if this deal is completed, it puts comcast at the center of every major policy debate we are going to have. i don't see them being in the public interest. i think it's why we have antitrust laws to prevent these kind of deals and for most americans, a deal like this seems unthinkable and it's gotten this far and being debated and it says a lot. for me, there is no condition that's good enough to let a deal like this go through. >> transactions are used as a way to shape markets.

so there are a lot of conditions that could be placed on the internet service provider, be it the low-cost offering or a buildout to schools for the president's initiative to upgrade internet access. there are a whole host of things that are similar to things that comcast agreed to when it bought unversusal. it could be something they would approve, but with a lot of conditions. >> the impact of a comcast i'm ime warner merger. >> next, a look at some of the labor issues and workers they represent. from this morning's "washington journal," this is 40 minutes.

we hope that you will join in on the conversation. we also asked the governor on the issue of minimum wage -- the president outlined in his state f the union address. some companies are doing it on their own. what is the right number? guest: $10.10 is an incredible first step for it we applaud the president's leadership. if you adjusted for inflation, it would be $10.65. you know that there are millions of workers in minimum wage jobs because they are the fastest growing jobs in the economy. they're trying to raise their children and can't do better. we think lifting the floor is incredibly important. we cannot stop there.

we have to be able to negotiate those living wages beyond minimum wage that they can't support their families on. host: the good news bad news is that by raising the minimum wage, people have more income. pulling people out of poverty. economists predict that .5 million jobs will be lost if the wage is increased. guest: there are 600 other reports that say that that is wrong. when you look at new jersey to pennsylvania, new jersey raised the wage one dollar. there was no job loss on the new jersey side of the border compared to pennsylvania. there are seven nobel laureates who signed a letter saying that the conclusion is just wrong. when you look at the 540 counties with minimum wage higher than the next door county, there has not been the kind of job loss that was predicted.

i cannot explain it, except to say that when you look at the experience in this nation, some cities and states are lifting their minimum wage. that job loss has not ccurred. host: would the free market take care of this? if you work at costco or gap, you will now earn more than the minimum wage. if you are looking at that kind of job and can consider gap or costco, you more likely would ant to get the higher pay. without a federal mandate, this push is doing it on its own? guest: i think if there was more of a snowball happening, your argument might prevail. it is essential for government to act and lift the wage. it has been so stagnant. the real issue we have to

confront is as we lift the minimum wage, how do we get these jobs to be living wage obs? one out of three jobs right now in this economy is minimum wage. we know that people are stringing together two and three jobs to make ends meet and feed their families. it is just wrong. when you working people have more money in their pockets, they spend it locally. on gas, groceries, necessities. that helps to create more jobs. there is more money flowing through people purchasing things. it is good for all of us when the minimum wage is increased. it helps to create more jobs where people are getting services that they need and could not afford before. host: the sign-up process continues for the affordable care act. the rollout has a lot of outcomes initially. from your assessment, how has it worked? guest: it is the most transformative security step that we have taken. we think it will bring down health care costs. it will transform the american health-care system from being about managing disease to

actually creating a more healthy america. we are thrilled to be a part of the army of people that is helping to enroll. we have had 1.4 million conversations. host: your sentiment is not shared by other members of organized labor. some are very critical of the white house. guest: i think that other parts have been concerned about the impact on their collective bargaining. i understand that those concerns have been addressed. what i try to say to my brothers and sisters in organized labor is let's think about the 30 million people who are going to have health care for the first time in their lives. with that peace of mind, those people will now have that when they go to bed at night. they can imagine a secure health care plan that does not put them on the edge of bankruptcy and where insurance companies are not allowed to pull coverage because of pre-existing conditions. we should be thinking in the

streets about the 100 million people who'll never have their health or taken away again because of this law. host: who are your members and how many make up seiu? guest: we have members who serve in health care by caring for the elderly and seniors. we have public service workers in cities and state governments that deal with protecting our communities and making them afe. and our property services workers clean downtown buildings and secure them as serving as security officers. host: how many earn minimum wage or just above? guest: most of the workers in property services and home care are minimum wage workers when they first start. through collective bargaining, they take minimum-wage jobs and lift them to $11, $12 per hour with health care and a secure retirement. everyone deserves that in this economy. host: were you following that plant in chattanooga?

guest: we totally wanted to help. we had 50 of our members helping to reach out to the workers. we thought it was a heartbreak and a step back. the uaw was not chosen by the majority of workers. the overwhelming majority signed a card saying they wanted the union. over the course of the campaign, it ended in a no vote. we think there was huge impact by the threat of job loss. u.s. senators and state legislators accused workers by saying if you vote for the union, we will not allow another product line to come into chattanooga. we will take away the tax incentives. never before in the history of workers coming together have i seen government officials threaten workers with job loss and removal of tax incentives if

they tried to string together to improve their lives. i am really interested in continuing to support what the workers want for themselves and their families. host: are you saying this was not their decision? they felt enormous amount of pressure and were forced about a different way? guest: they obviously made a decision, but it was heavily influenced by outside forces. the employer made an agreement not to interfere with the workers decision. we think that is the way it should work across the economy. employees need to stay out of the question of whether they want to form a union. we think that being able to collectively bargain is the way we will raise wages. we cannot make minimum wage jobs living wage jobs unless workers have the ability to come together and collectively bargain their wages up again. host: we will get your calls in just a moment. you can also send us an e-mail or a tweet. our guest is mary kay henry, president of the service

employees international union. one final question on the situation in chattanooga. does this bode poorly for nions? guest: i actually think there's a huge movement of workers across the economy and this setback will not stop the incredible momentum of tens of thousands of fast food workers saying they want $15 and a union. there are airport workers that are trying to take minimum-wage jobs and make them living wage jobs. governor cuomo just issued the port authority at laguardia to lift wages $1. $9 jobs will become $10 jobs. he wants the airlines to come together to figure out a collective bargaining agreement to lift those jobs. delta airlines and american airlines just agreed to comply with the $10 per hour. i think there's huge momentum. people understand that america

will not work for all of us if one and two jobs is a poverty wage job. it is unsustainable. host: should college football players get paid and be allowed to organize? guest: my brother asked me that. there is huge impact beyond the wage for the individual student. the football revenue, as i understand it, helps to finance a lot of women's sports that is nonrevenue producing. i am not equipped to weigh in on that. host: let's go to jesse from south carolina. republican line. aller: thank you for having me on. the only thing that i have to say about minimum wage is that t gets it up there -- we can make decent money and stuff. over time, history has shown that every time we get minimum-wage raises, inflation comes along with it.

you never really get help. that is all i have to say. guest: i think the caller is actually right. working families are struggling to get into the middle class or stay in. they feel it we are falling further and further behind. wages have been stagnant for two decades in the u.s. economy. even this minimum wage increase that we're having a debate about, people will feel it does not deal with food, gas, basic necessity prices that keep going p. host: next caller is ray from anaheim, california. member of a union. thank you for calling. caller: i have a question. a comment -- as long as this country is divided north and south, i think the unions will have a lot of problems. it seems that this image of right to work puts the politicians -- they want to have

the whole country in that image. that is where they want to o. you can see it for yourself. what happened with detroit was not the fault of the union. it was the fault with the anagers. they blamed the unions for what happened. those car companies moved overseas and moved down south. guess what? detroit is going to dry up. all of the work dried up there. with the rust belt, that happened all across it. host: thank you, we will get a response. guest: i agree with you. here's where i think we need to go. government has to play its part by dealing with the minimum age. i think the policymakers in this country need to come to the table and think about how to

create minimum-wage jobs and open new job creation in this country. i think working people need to come together and say, in spite of right to work, in spite of the attacks on workers organizations, we are going to unite together and help create good jobs where we can expect our kids will do better. i completely believe in the richest nation on earth that we are capable of coming together as a nation to have an economy that works for all of us. host: information on the service employees union. it has 2.1 million members. it is the largest health-care union with about 1.2 million members. the largest property services union. it is also the second-largest public employee union with about one million state and local members. let's go to this tweet. when were fast food jobs supposed to be careers? these are entry-level jobs and nothing more. guest: that used to be true in the 1950's and 1960's. what has happened since the

recession is that these jobs are the only jobs available in the lot of inner-city and low income communities. now the average age of the average age of a worker doing fast food is 28. 30% of the people working in fast food jobs have college degrees. we have a situation where the job creation in this country has stalled. we need to think about how to make fast food jobs good jobs, the we also need to work ogether between employers, government, and working people to think about how to create the next economy of the future that has more information technology. ore biotechnology. more windmills and solar panels. there's a lot that we should be will to imagine how to do. we're such an innovative people. we can create the next american middle class. host: minimum-wage in new york city is going to be very different for a living wage then

say birmingham, alabama. how do you deal with that disparity? guest: collective bargaining. the best way that occurred is when wages were rising for everybody. 30% of the american workers have the ability to bargain with their employers. the wages were different depending on the region and city of the country. it is possible to have the market at just to a bargaining process. that happens when we have prices set for coca-cola or when you purchase products. it should be true for wages again. host: next is regina from michigan. good morning. a member of a union. go ahead, please. caller: i have been a member of uaw for 14 years. i am disturbed by what happened in tennessee. the uaw already exists there. i was disappointed to see that they did not utilize that nfluence there to be able to

unionize those workers. spring hill, tennessee" a while and just reopened to start building new products. they did that with tax incentives through the state. i do not understand why the uaw did not use that as a model or call the senator out for some of the remarks he made regarding bringing in a new product to the plant. if it comes down to it, they will give them the tax incentive regardless of the membership. host: thank you for the call. we also had this from one of our viewers along the same lines. the governor and senator corker must be investigated for threatening to withdraw those tax incentives. your thoughts? guest: i know that we do need to raise a question about whether it is right for government officials to weigh in on this decision when an employer has agreed to stay out of it.

that is a basic principle that we have been fighting for with health care employers and property service employers in our union. to have our government way and is just wrong. when you look at the german economy, there are things olkswagen does with the german workers together with the german government that we should think about. how do we take those things that they are doing and apply it to the u.s.? wages are rising for everybody in germany. there's a lot less poverty. there is a standard wage that everybody is expected to earn in germany. there are imports and exports that are in balance. we have a lot to learn from what the germans have been able to figure out between the employers, working people, and government. host: danny is next. republican line. good morning.

are you with us? caller: yes, sir. host: go ahead, please. caller: i had a couple topics ere. if you raise the minimum wage, would that cause certain people to lose benefits and maybe not want to take that job or moved o another job? i work in the shipyard. i started my life as a welder. i had 15 hours to start with. i have no union to support me or back me. i went to $7.50, i went to 9.25, then i went to $17.50. never had a union. welded over other people's welding. they couldn't even weld. guest: i think it is terrific that you are able to have their wages increase in the way that you just described. what i am trying to talk about here this morning is that i

think what you experienced is what should be possible for every american worker. working families are the engine of our economy. when workers have more money in their pockets, they spend in their local communities on gas and groceries and fixing windows and buying things that they need for their kids to go to school. that is the way that we can get the economy growing again from he middle out. e can all prosper. host: next call is bob from michigan. detroit, good morning. caller: good morning. leaving aside what a pile of excrement be aca is, i would like to know from this lady where in the constitution the government has a right to tell private businesses what they have to pay their employees? where in the constitution does it say that? guest: i do not know of anyplace place in the constitution where it says that. what we want to figure out as a nation is when we have

corporations earning record profits and ceo pay increasing at a higher percentage each year, how do we make sure that the level of inequality between those who are doing work and those who are creating jobs starts to decrease? we are on a path as a nation that is totally unsustainable. we have an economy that is not working for the majority of americans. we all need to come together to restore the promise that when you work hard, you can get ahead. host: you do not deal directly with trade issues, but i want to share this headline. the vice president is acknowledging from members of the democratic party concerns over trade issues. he was in mexico meeting with his counterpart. unable to get any type of trade agreement pushed through. your view on this? guest: i think trade is a very

important impact on the u.s. economy. when you look at the trade agreements that china and india are making with the rest of the world and you think about them as key global competitors to the u.s. economy, how we tackle trade questions is really important. i think the labor movement views the way in which we have treated trade as totally out of kilter. when walmart goes into china, the chinese government requires walmart to give 50% of its manufacturing. there's a level of accountability to corporations about the good and well-being of the people. we think that we need to factor in more to u.s. trade law. host: was nafta good or bad? guest: we think it was bad. not that there was loosening of trade, but the way in which it occurred. it incentivized companies to

leave our shores and go to other places. we are thrilled with the move back because of the energy cost. i think we will see more and more u.s. employers reconsider and bring jobs back. i think we need to figure that out as a nation, how to help incentivize. we'll send it to make sure that we can raise wages again. we have canadian workers that are being hurt because it is more profitable for their companies to shut down in ontario and moved to upstate new york. we have had our canadian members talk about that all the time. the decrease of wages in the u.s. is pulling down the canadian standard of living too. we owe it to all of north america to figure out this trade problem. host: a large majority of their members deal with health care and elderly. 10,000 baby boomers retire every day. what does this mean for the seiu

and this industry overall? guest: how do we finance long-term care? the affordable care act still with the population under 65 in a very comprehensive way. we now need to look at how do we care for the aging population in his country? 3 million new health care providers are being created in he next 3-6 years. those jobs are poverty jobs. we need to make them living wage jobs that people can stare step back into the middle class in order to care for the aging opulation. host: back to the minimum wage issue. this tweet -- if it is raised, will they have to raise everyone's pay equally? guest: anybody who is currently earning minimum wage will get an increase. those who are earning about the minimum wage will not automatically get any increase. but we have found in cities and states that raise their minimum wage is that it has a ripple

effect. employers do raise other wages in order to keep those employees. also because people have more money to spend. it allows for the money to get spread around. in some states, we see more raised above minimum wage. host: jim from los angeles, good morning. aller: i am disagreeing with what she is saying about raising the minimum wage. the executive explanation -- i'm of the a position that people anticipate benefits in society with regard to shifting patients onto medicaid. it is unsustainable. we cannot operate a practice and aintain your overhead.

host: we will stop you there. we're getting a little bit of feedback. guest: it is really important to think about how do we sustain the medicaid and medicare programs? they are key pillars of the american health care system. i think a question i would pose to you is how do we think about corporations and the wealthy paying their fair share in taxes as a way of thinking about how do we have a social standard in this country for what every human being has the right to expect?

we would not be having this debate if we were creating good jobs at the level that we need to. there are 17 million unemployed in this country. they want to go to work and as a nation we need to answer the call and create millions more jobs. that will require the private sector to step up. we also need congress to act. host: our guest is mary kay henry, the president of seiu. she is a graduate of michigan state. what is your background? guest: i wanted to rebuild the city of detroit, so i went into urban policy. when i was doorknocking, people kept saying that the way to rebuild the city was to bring the jobs back. the plants had closed. here we are in 2014 having the same debate that i heard as i graduated from college. that is my background. host: the front page of the to detroit free press focuses on he bankruptcy.

these neighborhoods are being torn down and becoming green areas because so many people have left. they want to eliminate these abandoned homes and buildings. guest: we have 14,000 members that lived within the city of detroit. home care providers and nursing providers who care deeply about the future of that city. i think what people in the city would like to see is, in addition to removing blight, which we think is important, how do we think about an economic revitalization that is not simply about the green areas, which is good, but insufficient. we want to see more economic development within the city limits in addition to the greening of the city. host: who is to blame for their bankruptcy? guest: i do not think that question is worth focusing on. what we want to do is join together and think about a unified solution and call on the private sector, the finance sector, wall street, and the banks -- the federal government, the state government, the city

government, and working eople. we should all roll up our sleeves and get back to work. host: are there ways to think about how you got to this place? guest: puerto rico is the next on the block. there are 24 more cities in a similar situation to detroit. we are trying to now sync together and try to avoid that situation. the lessons are, i think, much ore civic and business and union leadership. thinking ahead about how to avert these crises. host: mark from ocala, florida is next. aller: good morning. i would like to thank you for your patriotism. i happen to be the son of a korean war veteran, a marine. i am a desert storm veteran. guest: thank you for your service to our nation.

caller: i thank you for this service to our domestic economy. to our america. i was a platoon sergeant in desert storm. my father works at a power plant. my grandfather was the president of a union. knew unions growing up. i found myself in central florida continuing after leaving atlanta to be with my daughter again. i was never able to exceed $10 per hour. one afternoon, after befriending a fellow carpenter, and helping him build his house, he said there was a local in gainesville, florida. that is where i went and met my business agent. she is a hero. i went from $10 per hour in 1995

to $15 per hour. have not looked back. the courage that it takes for my fellow union people, i want to thank them. i have physical courage as a marine, but i could not make a living. i found the labor movement where i got my self-respect and ignity back. uest: thank you very much. host: we go to james from akron, ohio. democratic line. caller: yes, you are talking about a lot of things this morning. my first comment, i will make this quick. the republican party wants the minimum wage to say where it is. most of the people in the south -- they are red states. if that is the case, then let it see where it is that after one year. they should be able to make a living wage.

we should immediately go to a living wage if they survive for one year. that is the first thing. people are talking about what happened in detroit. greed has happened in detroit. it has happened across the country. the older people in these factories -- now their kids and grandkids are running them. they do not care about the people. ford was a republican. he was the first one to say you have to make enough money to support your family. they brought the middle class p. when you start looking at it, these people think that just because he did it, all of these other employees are going to do it. they are not going to do it. they have proven that. a lot of people, i hate to bring race into it, but a lot of people think that it will help a lot of black people. they are not working hard.

that is the way it has been portrayed when you look into the republican talk. they think that blacks are lazy and do not want to work or do these things. they have to realize there are a lot of poor white people. more poor white people than black. host: thank you. we will get a response. guest: i appreciate your perspective. what we have to do is stop thinking about red and blue and republican and democrat. understand that the prosperity of the nation is within an ethos that we are all in this together. we have one in three jobs that are minimum wage. f we want to get the economy going for everybody, we need to inject an infusion by lifting the minimum wage and then allowing a situation where

working people can come together in airports and walmart and company after company and negotiate their wages beyond the minimum wage. we can rebuild an american middle class and have more shared prosperity throughout our economy. host: and your response to this sentiment from steve? this basically captures it. unions in europe and asia have a totally different relationship with the employer then unions in the united states. it is often difficult to compare. can you weigh in? guest: that is what i was speaking about earlier with germany. in france, for instance, when the health care union goes to bargain with the health care employer, they may represent 10% of the workers in the french economy. whatever wage is negotiated, it lifts the wages for all hroughout the economy. if the employers agree that to rain and develop a workforce that continues to stay in the

industry, that the wages need to be taken out of competition -- that kind of principle was agreed to in post-world war ii europe as part of the marshall lan. it is part of the u.s. rebuilding of europe. that created a wage and price stability throughout those countries. in asia, because of the shift in their political system to democracies, there is more thinking about how do we make sure we are lifting the bottom and creating a middle class? they want the middle class to be ble to consume what they are making. that is the kind of policy development where we need to return to a nation that supports the creation of a middle class. our policies and priorities -- think about how do we do that again? that is going to be a real key. beyond the minimum wage, we have to think about health care, retirement, long-term care. hink about how do we make it

possible for a family to earn a living, own a home, expect that their kid will go to college and then be able to get a job that matches what they just learned n college. we have had before in this nation and i am completely convinced it is possible to do again. host: let me go back to the affordable care act. what changes they to be ade? guest: lots. lots of changes. we have made steps forward to cover 30 million people. we have made a lot of compromises to get the walk-through. the president himself said there are lots of improvements that need to be made. host: give one or two specific things. guest: i think that what we would like to see changed is more innovation. that encourages home and community-based care giving. that thinks about preventative are. that is just being done on an experimental basis in oregon and washington and vermont right now. we think that more access should e given to them.

there should be more clinics in low income communities so that low income communities can also begin to thrive in terms of access to their health care. there are a lot of changes like that that i think will help to improve the law. the most important thing will happen will bring down cost. we have already seen that happen in the first couple of years. insurance premiums are the least high that they have been for 50 years. that is amazing impact that the law has already had. host: mario is on the line from lebanon, ohio. caller: good morning. this is a question -- i would like to say that you have raised your game among the lines of your mentor. when you asked a direct question, who was to blame for detroit, you don't press to get the answer. now i would like to give the view from the employer standpoint. what skills can an employer expect to receive from the

minimum wage worker? guest: i think everybody should be able to read and write in his country. we have more and more people graduating from our public schools. they cannot read and write. i think that is a travesty and we need to improve that. i think the minimum skills need o be talked about based on how do we get them employers and technical schools and public schools thinking together about the kind of computer and information technology skills that the workforce of the future will need. host: do you want to take another stab at who is to blame? guest: i think that it is a combination of factors. an earlier caller talked about greed. the lack of accountability that we had on corporate behavior needs to shift in terms of government accountability.

i think the attack on worker organizations and the decline of unionization has direct connection to the disappearing of the middle class in our economy. i think government officials were not held accountable. i think that the state withdrew funds from detroit in order to help create the collapse. i think wall street swaps -- they pushed into cities five years ago and played a part. this is not a cycle entity or sectors fall. we all need take responsibly for detroit. host: our next caller is from detroit. larry, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. thank you god for c-span. my question is this, i am a third-generation employee. one of the things that i see is a problem with uaw that has occurred in my generation is

those issues that we have been founded on. things like health and safety. protecting the rights of workers. looking at their wages for the type of work that we do. we have two and three and sometimes four and five. why are we not defending the right of workers to have a increases? cost of living? keeping up with the economy? why are we not looking at those issues that we are subjected to daily about health and safety in our work places? why are we not doing more of that? trying to build a union instead of losing the union. what about the pay discrepancies that increased with the hired union officials compared to that of the workers? i will listen for your comment. guest: you are raising completely legitimate questions.

the great thing about the trade union is that we can raise these questions and be critical and have debates and agree to isagree. reach a majority opinion and try to address the issues you raised. the fundamental question that you are pointing to about pay increases is that there has been a systematic attack on worker organizations in the last 30 years. corporate interests do not believe that the existence of independent worker organizations serve their interest. our ability to bargain increases and health and safety has been systematically undermined. that is why we're using every last breath and fighting tooth and nail for our existing members. i think that is true for every union in this country. we're trying to think together about how do we reach out our hands to the millions of american workers who want to join together to raise wages again? both of those things have to happen simultaneously. host: one final point. the president is giving a preview of his budget that will be announced next month. the issue of social security and the cost of living increases.

there have been changes in the cpi. the white house is backing off of that plan. good idea or bad idea? guest: it is a very good idea to back off of that plan. the debate on social security in my mind has to be about how do we lift the cap? how do we make social security based on people's income? and how come anybody who earns more than $150,000 per year gets the same amount as people earning between $100,000 and $150,000? the debate that we need to have is the same that we need to have on our tax policy and raising living wages. had we make it more equitable? host: should they raise it? when you are a certain amount of income, you are no longer taxed after that amount? guest: the cap should be taken

off. then the system would be totally well-financed. host: thank you very much for joining us. mary kay henry is the president of the service employees international union. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> the latest on what happening in ukraine. we will be joined by former undersecretary of state nicholas burns. and we'll talk about the number of americans who fail to pay their health care premiums on time. and "washington post" reporter will discuss ongoing funding for military tanks and vehicles that the army has said are no longer necessary to maintain. we are looking to your phone calls by email, twitter and facebook at 7:00 a.m. eastern on span. tomorrow, arkansas governor will discuss the health care launch

in his state. editorial independent program of the kaiser family foundation at 8:30 eastern at c-span2. and c-span 3, the day long conference focused on economic policy. that event will begin with remarks from former federal alan greenspan at 8:00 a.m. eastern. the house and senate were in recess. the senate scheduled to return on monday and the house will gavel at 2:00 p.m. a noon. what to expect from lawmakers, we talked to a congressional reporter. >> with the house and senate returning from the presidents day recess, we are joined by pete who looks ahead to the house and senate.

they come back to a bill with the weather in the news that deals with flood insurance. how does the proposed bill deal with what the senate passed a few weeks ago? >> friday afternoon, it is still being written. house republican leaders that the bill goes too far in getting some of the reforms. house republicans want to provide rate relief to homeowners and businesses who will see rates go up but we have that general outline. no one seems to know what to do. >> one of the terms that regular watchers of the house, unfunded mandates and you are talking about dealing with that. what will it do? >> this goes back to 1995 when bill clinton signed a bill meant to reduce unfunded mandates which are orders from the

federal government either through legislation or regulation that says you must do this but no money to do it and costs states and local governments a lot of money. they passed a law in 1995 to limit those. republicans say we need to clamp down even more, to find away around that law to include independent agencies in an effort to make sure we don't throw rules and regulations back at the states without any money to let them fund these activities. >> the house may take up a bill dealing with the i.r.s. the headline on "the hill," g.o.p. to go after i.r.s. what are they proposing to do? >> if you look at it these bills next week, the republicans reacting to the targeting that the i.r.s. did on the conservative groups. what they are going to do is going to have a bill that says -- the i.r.s. is looking at

regulations saying let's codify rules that we put in place for groups. the big one from the house would stop that regulation from taking place. until the house investigates the scandal and some of the bills are transparent. saying more broad taxpayer issues, where is your money going and how is it being spent and how the money is being used . it's a payback week for the i.r.s. we heard the anger from the republicans. >> and still on the house, most recent article deals with a supreme court case the kelo decision saying they will try to gut it gut it. what was the decision and what will the house bill propose to deal? >> a lot of people are angry across the country.

a lot of people said that the supreme court made it too easy for government at all levels, local, state and federal to take property away if they decide some other owner might create tax revenue for the state or local government and everyone knows if you went to high school that that concept of eminent domain where the government has rights to take property, supreme court said it is invalid to take the property if they can provide more revenue to the government. that's something that a lot of thing that the conservatives oppose. the house -- the bill, what we are seeing next week is a prohibition. they'll see the governments can't do it and can't use it a public use. but, you know, so many bills the house passed in the last

congress and didn't go anywhere. this is something that one of the things that keeps conservatives motivated and don't like the decision. if it goes anywhere, probably not considering the relationship between the house and senate. >> word is the chairman of the ways and means, dave camp is set to release some of the tax changes, proposed tax change. any bread crumbs, any ideas what may be in that package? >> some of my colleagues have written about this and we know what camp wants to do. it will involve a drop in the marginal tax rate. the goal here should be look broaden the base and reduce rates, but if more people are paying, we could have the same amount of money and mibe even more if changing the tax system helps promotes growth. something along those lines. we know that it -- we are

already talking elections and seems like not enough people are getting something going because it requires a lot of hard decisions and not people will hang themselves on. >> the senate is back next week, too. on the two issues that are coming out of the senate, the extension of those unemployment insurance benefits and raising the minimum wage. during the presidents' day recess, have either of those issues moved forward? >> we know they are talking. it is probably too early to happen next week but senator reid tweet the today that we were one vote away from advancing the unemployment insurance bill and so we know there are working. it's tough. there has been a divide between the two parties how you pay for this thing. so it's hard to imagine this is close to done but they are working on it.

minimum wage will be longer, but we know that they want to bring something up, but doesn't look like this week because the senate is doing work on nominations and other bills. >> follow him on twitter at pete kthe hill. >> c-span, we bring public affairs from washington to you from white house events, briefings and conferences all at the public service of private industry. we are c-span created 35 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> coming up next >> coming up next q & a talking bout his book on washington

politics. after that c-span's american series featuring two nterviews from capital hill&later a discussion about security at future olympic games. & a retired q congressional staff member and recent iscusses his review of bob gate's memoir titled th his own book "the party is over." mike, author of the "party is over" and bob gates book "duty" farther the better because up